Mathias Landtwing Quartett

“Whether or not people can pigeonhole us isn’t so important. We just make music that we enjoy”. Thus spake Mathias Landtwing about the musical activities of his Quartet. They move around freely in all kinds of different genres, though always with a hint of folk music. His words might sound like casual, throwaway remarks, but in fact they encapsulate an artistic credo. Because the Mathias Landtwing Quartett isn’t concerned with setting up boundaries, but with crossing them freely. They don’t categorise or sort the sounds they make, but gather them together, shift them around and reassemble them. Their echoes of traditional folk music and rural sounds here mix with urban energy, rhythmic sophistication and the openness of jazz and klezmer.

At the heart of their ensemble is the clarinet – though it doesn’t have a “classical”, solo role, instead figuring as a kind of narrator, a catalyst, as one voice among others. Mathias Landtwing’s playing is constantly in motion. Sometimes it’s edgy and brash, at others light and almost elusive. Around him there emerges a meshwork of guitar, bass and drums that doesn’t just accompany the music, but actively helps to shape it. Together, Landtwing, Florian Mächler, Thomas Tavano and Christian Zünd shape a common language for their Quartet, creating a sound defined less by stylistic concepts than by an attitude: alert, ready to take risks, and – in the best sense of the word – contemporary.

Since releasing their first EP at the Hidden Harlekin jazz club in Zug in October 2024, the Landtwing Quartet has been out and about a lot. By late 2025, they’d given some 40 gigs across Switzerland and had received their first invitations to play abroad – such as at the “Jazz & The City Festival” in Salzburg. Further highpoints in the as-yet brief history of the band include performances at the Lucerne Festival and their involvement in Thomas Hürlimann’s play “De Franzos im Ybrig” (“The Frenchman in Ybrig”). Mathias Landtwing studied the clarinet and composition in Lucerne, is active as a composer and is eminently versatile, playing in an assortment of different ensembles. He is joined here by Florian Mächler, a guitarist with a broad network who has also set up his own guitar school; by Thomas Tavano, who has played bass for Tratosphere and many other bands; and Christian Zünd, an in-demand drummer who has already played in New York. Their diverse musical backgrounds come together to create a unique musical language in the Mathias Landtwing Quartett.